Facebook and Twitter on Friday disabled a massive, global network of fake accounts that pushed pro-Trump messages and covered its tracks using inauthentic photos generated with the aid of artificial intelligence. The use of AI to trick social-media companies, deceive unsuspecting users and essentially create people who do not exist marked a major, troubling new development, according to disinformation researchers, who expressed fresh alarm that such tactics could have implications for the 2020 presidential election.
The tech giants' takedown targeted The BL, a U.S.-based media company that Facebook linked to Epoch Media Group. The organization has ties to the Falun Gong, a Chinese spiritual movement, and it has vociferously supported the reelection of President Trump.
On Facebook alone:
In doing so, the campaign appears to have had vast reach: On Facebook, 55 million accounts followed at least one of the pages tied to the operation, though the company did not specify how many of those people were based in the United States.
The scale is just massive.